Hide and Seek
by Yatzstar
Summary: Snape grudgingly plays a game of hide and seek with Lily Luna.


**Because these two are so much fun to write. :)**

 **/**

A small hand tugged at his robes. "Unca Sev'wus?"

"What?" Snape grumped, though his tone was devoid of any vitriol.

"Will you play with me?"

Sighing, he tore his eyes away from the book he had been enjoying and looked down into the hopeful face of Lily Luna. "Why can't you play with your brothers?"

Her tiny nose wrinkled in distaste at the mention of her siblings. "They're mean, and all they want to play is q…qui…"

"Quidditch," Snape finished for her. "Yes, I too fail to see the appeal."

"So will you play with me?" she asked, staring up at him hopefully.

Snape knew he would have to give in. No matter how many times he may say no, she always had a way of convincing him otherwise.

"Fine," he conceded. "What do you want to do?"

Lily opened her mouth to suggest something, but Snape cut her off.

"No princesses. I do not feel like being humiliated while your brothers are about."

Lily's mouth turn downward in a small pout, but it swiftly disappeared as another idea came into her mind. "Hide and seek!"

Snape frowned. There were a million places for a little girl to hide in the Potter house, and the rest of his afternoon would inevitably be used up. Worse yet, he could lose her, and he would have to deal with the Potters when they returned that evening.

"Please?" Lily begged, leaning against his legs.

Snape scowled his most thunderous scowl (which, to both his annoyance and amusement did not daunt her at all) and said, "One…"

Lily's face lit up as she realized he would play with her.

"Two…"

Giggling, she ran off, leaving the room. As he continued counting, the sound of her footsteps faded away into silence. Experimentally he stopped counting, wondering if it would bring the sounds of protests, but there was nothing.

Assuming she was ready, Snape pushed himself from his chair. At least the den was ruled out.

He started his search in the next room over, which was the kitchen. He figured she would have hidden herself somewhere farther away, but it didn't hurt to look. The drapes were devoid of any conspicuous lumps, the space under the table was empty air, the cabinets only possessed what should have been in them, and the pantry contained only food.

He moved into the hallway. There was nothing to hide her there, so he moved on to the front room. Again, the drapes were drapes, there was nothing underneath the coffee table, nothing behind the couch or under it. The room was empty.

Snape frowned as he moved on. She was better at hiding than he might have supposed.

He climbed the stairs. Again, the corridor boasted of nothing that might be a good hiding place for a little girl. He searched the master bedroom and bath quickly, not wishing to disturb the Potter's things, but he had no luck. He went to the boys' bedroom, which quite frankly looked like a tornado had swept through it, but even in that mess Lily was nowhere to be seen. He checked the hall bathroom, but found nothing but magical bubble bath.

The last room was, of course, Lily's own. Snape smirked to himself as he entered the sickeningly pink room quietly. Of course she would hide here.

But soon, this notion was dropped. He searched through a multitude of dolls and other princess-y paraphernalia, but the room appeared to be missing the real princess.

Snape looked about the room. Though he would never admit it to her, Lily had him truly befuddled. Muttering to himself, he conducted a more thorough search of the house, but the youngest Potter was nowhere to be found.

After twenty minutes of searching, he was starting to feel worried. Had he truly lost her? He was sure that she couldn't have left the house, but then again, she was Potter's child. He went through the house one more time just to be sure, but there was no Lily.

Attempting to quell his worry, he marched out to the backyard, where James and Albus were playing a game of Quidditch.

"Have either of you seen your sister?" he asked.

"No." James halted his broom. "Why? Is she missing?"

"I cannot seem to find her," Snape said. "She wanted to play hide and seek so she…"

As soon as the words "hide and seek" left his mouth, both James and Albus broke out into peals of laughter.

"What's funny?" he growled at them. "Your young sister is missing!"

"She duped you into playing hide and seek!" James managed to say between laughs.

"What?"

"Sometimes when we play hide and seek, she likes to borrow Dad's Cloak so she's sure to win."

Snape scowled deeply as the realization came to him. He drew out his wand and said, "Point me!" His wand pointed him to a location only a few feet behind him. "Rictusempra!"

There was a shriek of laughter as the charm hit its mark, and Lily tumbled into view from seemingly nothing. She lay on the grass, giggling at Snape who loomed over her.

"You found me, Unca Sev'wus."

James and Albus grinned at each other and went back to playing their game.

Snape bent and gathered up both the Invisibility Cloak and Lily. He resisted the urge to squeeze her as relief flowed through him. Instead, he swept inside and deposited her on the couch, fixing her with a glare.

"You were supposed to hide," he growled. "Not trick me!"

"I was hiding!" Lily shot back.

"With your father's cloak," said Snape. "Are you even supposed to have it?"

"No." Lily hung her head, her red hair falling over her face.

"I thought not," he said, his tone harsh. "You should have known better, foolish child."

Lily's lip quivered and tears began to form in her eyes at his scolding. Immediately Snape regretted his words.

"I was worried," he said softly, sitting down next to her. "I thought you might have slipped outside somewhere and I wouldn't be able to find you."

She clambered into his lap, wrapping her small arms around his middle. "'M sowwy Unca Sev'wus."

He held her close in a reassuring hug. "It's alright, Lily. All is forgiven, but no more playing with your father's cloak." If only she knew she was playing around with one of the Hallows.

"M'kay." Her tears forgotten, she fiddled with one of the buttons on his overcoat. "I did win, didn't I?"

"I found you, so no."

"You cheated!" she declared with a frown.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You cheated as well by using your father's cloak when you weren't supposed to."

She ducked her head away from his gaze sheepishly.

"But, I suppose it was a good hiding place, so maybe you did win."

She looked back up at him, a huge grin forming on her face. "Yay!"

"Don't get any ideas," he warned her. "If I find you with your fathers cloak again I'll Rictusempra you into next week."

The threat was halfway serious, but Lily merely giggled at him and snuggled further into his embrace. "You're funny Unca Sev'wus."

Snape said nothing; he merely reveled in the relief that he hadn't lost the youngest Potter imp, and he was more than happy to keep her close.

/

"Keep better track of your things, Potter." Snape flung the Invisibility Cloak at Harry, and he caught it.

"Why?" he asked.

The older man jerked his head towards the little figure attached to his leg. "Ask your daughter."

Harry gave his youngest a stern look. "Did you take my cloak again?"

"I won hide and seek Daddy!" Lily said. "Unca Sev'wus said so!"

"After she had thoroughly worried me with her disappearance," Snape said drily.

"You know you weren't supposed to play with that," Harry told her.

"I know," she said with a little frown. "But I wanted t' win and it's easy t' find me if I don't take it." An impish smile formed on her face. "It was funny t' watch Unca Sev'wus look for me."

"Funny for you maybe," Snape growled. He shot Harry an exasperated look.

Harry grinned, folding up the Cloak and putting it in his pocket. "Now Lily, you don't want to give the Professor any gray hairs now do you?"

Snape's expression promised death upon him, but he was too preoccupied with the little girl clinging to his leg to get any hexing done. "I'm sure to get gray hairs if you keep saddling me with your little monsters and letting them play with the Hallows!"

Lily found his retort hysterical and started laughing. Snape's face softened fractionally and he pried the girl from his leg and held her in his arms.

"She's almost as insufferable as your other children," he growled.

"Wha's insuffewable?" Lily asked.

"Nothing," Snape said, stroking her hair. "Nothing at all."

Harry laughed.


End file.
